ave, in Anglo-Saxon, _rad_, _raed_ (counsel);
_raedlich_, _grad_, as above, whence _geradien_ (to prepare), and other
words. In German, _rede_ (discourse); _rath_ (counsel); _reden_ (to speak);
_regel_ (a rule); _recht_ (right); _gerecht_ (just); _gerade_ (exactly),
&c.; _bereiten_ (prepare), &c. In English, _ready_, _read_, _rule_,
_right_, _riddle_, _reason_, _rather_, to which we must add _gradely_. In
Scotch, _red_, _rede_, _rade_, _rath_, &c., with the words mentioned above;
of which _graith_ (furniture) is the German _geraeth_. Your readers will
derive much information on this class of words by reference to Jamieson,
under _red_, _rede_, _rath_, _graith_, &c.

BENJ. H. KENNEDY.

Shrewsbury, Oct. 19.

_Gradely_.--It seems rather a rash step to differ from the mass of critical
authority with which your last number has brought this shy, old-fashioned
provincial word into a blaze of literary notoriety. Yet I cannot help
conceiving the original form of this adverb to be _grathedly_ ([Old
English: geraethlic], root [Old English: raeth], with the preteritive prefix
[Old English: ge]) or _gerathely_. In our Yorkshire dialect, to _grathe_
(pronounced _gradhe_) means, to make ready, to put in a state of _order_ or
_fitness_. A man inconveniently accoutred or furnished with implements for
the performance of some operation on which he was employed, {362} observed
to me the other day, "I's ill grathed for't job"--rather a terse Saxon
contrast to my latinized paraphrase.

_Grathedly_ would then mean, "In a state of good order, fitness, readiness,
or perfection."

To the cognate German _gerade_ adv., I find the senses, "directly, just,
exactly, _perfectly_, rightly."

The prevailing impression given by your numerous testimonials as to the
character of the word _gradely_, is one of decency, order, rightness,
perfectness.

I fancy the whole family (who might be called the children of _rath_), viz.
[Old English: raeth], _rathe_ (_gerathe, grathedly, gradely_), _rather_ (only
a Saxon form of _readier_), have as a common primeval progenitor the
Sanscrit [Sanskrit: radh] (_radh_), which is interpreted "a process towards
perfection;" in other words, "a becoming ready."

G. J. CAYLEY.

Wydale, Oct. 21.

P.S.--_Greadly_ is probably a transposition for _geradly_. The Yorkshire
pronunciation of _gradely_ is almost as if written _grared-ly_.

I think it probable that the words _greed, greedily_, are from the same
radicle. By t